Description
This wide-ranging, original account of the politics and economics of the giant military supply project in the North reconstructs an important but little-known part of Civil War history. Drawing on new and extensive research in army and business archives, Mark R. Wilson offers a fresh view of the wartime North and the ways in which its economy worked when the Lincoln administration, with unprecedented military effort, moved to suppress the rebellion. This task of equipping and sustaining Union forces fell to career army procurement officers. Largely free from political partisanship or any formal free-market ideology, they created a mixed military economy with a complex contracting system that they pieced together to meet the experience of civil war. Wilson argues that the North owed its victory to these professional military men and their finely tuned relationships with contractors, public officials, and war workers. Wilson also examines the obstacles military bureaucrats faced, many of which illuminated basic problems of modern political economy: the balance between efficiency and equity, the promotion of competition, and the protection of workers' welfare. The struggle over these problems determined the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars; it also redirected American political and economic development by forcing citizens to grapple with difficult questions about the proper relationships among government, business, and labor. Students of the American Civil War will welcome this fresh study of military-industrial production and procurement on the home front-long an obscure topic.
An impressively researched and fresh contribution to the field, Mark Wilson's The Business of Civil War illustrates the role of the military in the American political economy, detailing how the army comes to the fore as orchestrator and manager of the wartime economy and how the Civil War experience may have laid the foundation for postwar developments. -- Merritt Roe Smith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
About the Author
Mark R. Wilson is an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Reviews
A superlative and welcome addition to Civil War scholarship... clear, informative and consistently insightful. -- Ethan S. Rafuse Civil War News 2006 A good book for anyone interested in logistics, as well as the more serious student of the Civil War. NYMAS Review 2006 A 'must' for any serious student of Civil War history who would go beyond the usual statistics and battle events. Midwest Book Review 2006 Anyone interested in the antebellum army, the Civil War, or the role of the military in the American political economy will find this book worthwhile. -- Robert G. Angevine Journal of Military History 2007 Wilson says something new and vital about the war by illustrating the role of war and the military in American business and politics. Nothing like it has ever been published. Civil War Book Review 2007 This clearly written and detailed study of the northern procurement effort represents a fresh take on the 'sinews of war'. -- C. Wyatt Evans North & South 2006 The first systematic and comprehensive study, based on original archival research into both military and business records, devoted exclusively to the Union's economic mobilization. -- Jeffrey Rogers Hummel Public Choice 2007 A much-needed analysis of Union production and procurement issues. -- Lenette S. Taylor Journal of American History 2007 Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay the author is to say that after I finished reading his book I felt compelled to re-write the lectures in my Civil War course that I devote to mobilization. -- Roger Ranson EH.Net 2007 One of the most important Civil War books to appear in quite some time. -- Rick Sauers Blue and Gray Magazine 2007 A concise, well-argued work of scholarship. It enlivens a potentially stolid subject in a manner that engages nonspecialists. -- Robert M. Sandow New England Quarterly 2007 An excellent contribution to the general understanding of Union military institutions. -- Harold S. Wilson American Historical Review 2007 Wilson's research and core analyses are solid. For reconstituting the complexity, the tensions, and the institutional innovations of massive war supply in a horse-and-wagon economy, Wilson deserves a hearty round of thanks from historians and political scientists. -- Philip Scranton Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2008 The book goes beyond a simple Civil War history and adds to the understanding of American business history, as well as the war's legacy to the Gilded Age... valuable to anyone examining nineteenth century business history or the links between the military and industry. Wilson's well written narrative and thorough research makes for compelling reading, and is a welcome addition to Civil War scholarship. -- Joseph-James Ahren on Point 2007 Wilson makes a compelling case. -- Mary A. DeCredico Journal of Southern History 2007 Wilson provides an excellent treatment of the constantly evolving financial and manufacturing infrastructure that supported United States armies during the Civil War. -- Ben Wynne Historian 2008 An excellent study of military supply on the home front during the war. -- James L. Huston Civil War History An outstanding contribution to our understanding of the military's role in society, politics, and the economy during the nineteenth century. -- Steven G. Collins Technology and Culture A compelling account of the political economy of Northern mobilization. -- Ann N. Greene Enterprise and Society A fascinating account of how the North marshaled its economic might to win the Civil War. -- John Majewski Journal of Economic History 2008 As Wilson observes, historians 'have tended to search for the roots of American bureaucracy in virtually every field except the military'. Wilson has struck a powerful blow against this exceptionalism, and the larger exceptionalism of the state of courts and parties thesis... Wilson presents compelling evidence that they should not be ignored. -- Samuel Watson Journal of the Early Republic 2010
Book Information
ISBN 9780801898204
Author Mark R. Wilson
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 21mm
An impressively researched and fresh contribution to the field, Mark Wilson's The Business of Civil War illustrates the role of the military in the American political economy, detailing how the army comes to the fore as orchestrator and manager of the wartime economy and how the Civil War experience may have laid the foundation for postwar developments. -- Merritt Roe Smith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
About the Author
Mark R. Wilson is an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Reviews
A superlative and welcome addition to Civil War scholarship... clear, informative and consistently insightful. -- Ethan S. Rafuse Civil War News 2006 A good book for anyone interested in logistics, as well as the more serious student of the Civil War. NYMAS Review 2006 A 'must' for any serious student of Civil War history who would go beyond the usual statistics and battle events. Midwest Book Review 2006 Anyone interested in the antebellum army, the Civil War, or the role of the military in the American political economy will find this book worthwhile. -- Robert G. Angevine Journal of Military History 2007 Wilson says something new and vital about the war by illustrating the role of war and the military in American business and politics. Nothing like it has ever been published. Civil War Book Review 2007 This clearly written and detailed study of the northern procurement effort represents a fresh take on the 'sinews of war'. -- C. Wyatt Evans North & South 2006 The first systematic and comprehensive study, based on original archival research into both military and business records, devoted exclusively to the Union's economic mobilization. -- Jeffrey Rogers Hummel Public Choice 2007 A much-needed analysis of Union production and procurement issues. -- Lenette S. Taylor Journal of American History 2007 Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay the author is to say that after I finished reading his book I felt compelled to re-write the lectures in my Civil War course that I devote to mobilization. -- Roger Ranson EH.Net 2007 One of the most important Civil War books to appear in quite some time. -- Rick Sauers Blue and Gray Magazine 2007 A concise, well-argued work of scholarship. It enlivens a potentially stolid subject in a manner that engages nonspecialists. -- Robert M. Sandow New England Quarterly 2007 An excellent contribution to the general understanding of Union military institutions. -- Harold S. Wilson American Historical Review 2007 Wilson's research and core analyses are solid. For reconstituting the complexity, the tensions, and the institutional innovations of massive war supply in a horse-and-wagon economy, Wilson deserves a hearty round of thanks from historians and political scientists. -- Philip Scranton Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2008 The book goes beyond a simple Civil War history and adds to the understanding of American business history, as well as the war's legacy to the Gilded Age... valuable to anyone examining nineteenth century business history or the links between the military and industry. Wilson's well written narrative and thorough research makes for compelling reading, and is a welcome addition to Civil War scholarship. -- Joseph-James Ahren on Point 2007 Wilson makes a compelling case. -- Mary A. DeCredico Journal of Southern History 2007 Wilson provides an excellent treatment of the constantly evolving financial and manufacturing infrastructure that supported United States armies during the Civil War. -- Ben Wynne Historian 2008 An excellent study of military supply on the home front during the war. -- James L. Huston Civil War History An outstanding contribution to our understanding of the military's role in society, politics, and the economy during the nineteenth century. -- Steven G. Collins Technology and Culture A compelling account of the political economy of Northern mobilization. -- Ann N. Greene Enterprise and Society A fascinating account of how the North marshaled its economic might to win the Civil War. -- John Majewski Journal of Economic History 2008 As Wilson observes, historians 'have tended to search for the roots of American bureaucracy in virtually every field except the military'. Wilson has struck a powerful blow against this exceptionalism, and the larger exceptionalism of the state of courts and parties thesis... Wilson presents compelling evidence that they should not be ignored. -- Samuel Watson Journal of the Early Republic 2010
Book Information
ISBN 9780801898204
Author Mark R. Wilson
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 21mm
